MovieChat Forums > Wind at My Back (1996) Discussion > Spoiler...I can't believe...

Spoiler...I can't believe...


they 'Cecily-ed' Honey?! If anyone also saw Avonlea/Road to Avonlea, and especially binge watched the entire series, you may remember how in S3 or 4 they wrote off the original actress who played the King family's youngest daughter (& Felicity and Felix's younger sister), Cecily, by saying she'd contracted TB & had to stay in a sanitorium for most of the rest of that next season. Then when 'Cecily' returned, she'd been recast to an actress probably at least as old as Gemma Zamprogna, the actress who played oldest daughter, 'Felicity.' (At least when the RTA writers wrote off 'Sarah Stanley' after teenage Sarah Polley wanted to leave, they didn't recast her with an entirely different actress later for the series finale, etc.)

Anyway though, for RTA, 'Cecily King' was a somewhat minor character and hadn't been the lead character in the drama in the first season, like 'Sarah Stanley' was on RTA, or 'Honey Bailey-Sutton' had been on 'Wind At My Back.' After watching most of WAMB, I can see how May Bailey and especially Grace Bailey 'stole the show' or probably became a fan (& writers) favorite over the course of the entire series, still it is rather strange to suddenly recast the original lead actress in a TV series after 3+ seasons. (It makes me wonder too, if leaving when she did was entirely Cynthia Belliveau's choice or not?)

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Yes, I was thinking the same thing myself. I wonder what the true story is, here, because it's obvious that SOMETHING was going on behind the scenes. Cynthia Belliveau had been in every episode of seasons one and two, but then her character was missing entirely from half of season three, with the actress eventually being replaced by Laura Bruneau.

Seems that there had to be some sort of backstage drama going on, but I have no idea what the story is or just what happened.

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